Online Biz Member Success Blog

Jane Falter, Jane Falter Coaching

Your Name: Jane Falter

Name of Business: Jane Falter Coaching

Type of business: Coaching

What does your business do? We specialize in helping Corporate Veterans
renew their spirit and find their dreams

Why did you start the biz and when did your business open? I officially
started my business in January 2007.  After being laid off from my 30 year
HR career, I knew it was time to follow my dream--become a Coach.  I realize now that all my life, I have been passionate about personal development--Coaching has absolutely incorporated all my talents and skills.

How many people in your company?  I am a soloprenuer.

What's your office location like? Soon after I got my coaching certification, I decided to follow yet another dream--to move south.  When I was looking for my perfect house, I knew I would have to find a space with lots of windows and light--where I would enjoy spending my days.  My official office is in my sun room, along with my piano.  Lots and lots of windows.  I will admit, though, that my "east wing" office is on my couch where I write on my couch!

What's the toughest part of running your biz? So many opportunities to network and market--I sometimes feel overwhelmed with choosing the best cost-effective ones.  Having the faith that what you do today--will resultin clients and income tomorrow.

What's the most fun part? I love the flexibility I have.  I realize that I am using all my talents in this career.  I especially love relationship building, developing workshops and writing.  I love my job!

Anything you would have done differently? I am going through the Perfection Recovery program. I try to do it all and perfectly.  I am learning to just start and refine as I go.  I also get challenged with balance--I love what I do, so I work from the time I get up until I go to bed sometimes.  I am trying to give myself more time to do things like play the piano, recreational reading etc.

Explain what's next on the horizon for you and your business?  I am just launching a new phase of my business -- helping Corporate Veterans recover from being beaten down.  It took me awhile to heal myself--but am now excited and very committed to helping others.

What advice do you have for others? It's taking longer to get my business going and more money.  I am living off my savings (formerly known as retirement money) and Social Security.  It's scary, but I decided that if I didn't--I would regret it the rest of my life.  I am (usually) confident in me.  If I didn't go for, but had a pot of money, I would be miserable.  So, my advice is that you have to be really clear you want it.

How do you use OnlineBizU.com to help with your biz or sanity? I want to focus on what I do best--coaching. Not being a techy, I find Donna's suggestions and advice absolutely invaluable.  When I got into Twitter, it was the first place I went to for information.  I have also used her information on some of the vendors and affiliates she recommends.  She's always right on.

Personal Info:

School BA, Education--Wm Paterson University; MS, Organ Develop -- Rochester Institute of Technology; coaching certification from iPEC

Prior jobs or business? Last positions Associate Director, HR--AstraZeneca; VP Human Resources, Spectrum Office Products (Roch, NY)

Favorite food?  Dessert

What are your pets' names? Cat named Luna

Do any of these pets help with your biz? Luna is quite the lap cat.  Now that I'm using my lap top so much, she now cuddles next to me on the couch.

Website URL:  JaneFalter.com

Lisa Murray, REVIVE Business Coaching

Your Name: Lisa Murray

Name of Your Business: REVIVE Business Coaching

Type of business: Holistic Business Coaching

What does your business do? Lisa Murray is a business mentor and coach focusing on peak performance, business startups and helping stressed business owners regain control of their life and business. Her holistic techniques help small business owners solve their biggest challenges with ease.  Lisa has worked with hundreds of business owners in many different industries. Through REVIVE Business Coaching, Lisa offers personal coaching sessions, workshops and seminars. She is known to revive profits, people and perspectives!  For heaps of practical small business resources and templates see REVIVE Coaching.  For a free 30 minute business coaching consultation, call Lisa on 0404 063 513.

Why did you start the biz and when did your business open? I started this business in July 2008 after recovering from burnout.  It seemed like a good idea to start a business in an area that I have natural skill and ability in. (I spent over 10 years working closely with retailers and coaching them to achieve increased profits and I have always helped friends with their businesses!)

How many people in your company?  Just me and a few outsourced suppliers at the moment... I've got plans for more though!

What's your office location like? I have a home office - it's a small room but very comfortably furnished.  It looks out on a beautiful garden full of bamboo and tropical plants.  Sometimes I work on the terrace as it is very peaceful there too.  I often see my clients on the terrace - it is calming for them.

What's the toughest part of running your biz? Growing pains - the constant balance between being able to afford the support I require and being out of control busy.

What's the most fun part? Two things - my amazing clients - I love love love working with people who want their business to be the most amazing business possible!  And learning new things - I get to explore amazing solutions from the holistic perspective - helping people create change with ease is very joyful for me.

Anything you would have done differently? Got a business coach for myself sooner - it took me a year to find one that felt right - I would have generated results much faster if I'd found this person sooner.

Explain what's next on the horizon for you and your business?  I'm building the Revive Coaching Empire... I'm developing materials to teach other coaches how to work with clients holistically so that they can create joy and ease in all aspects of their life and business.

What advice do you have for others? Be willing to see the amazingness of you!  So many of us sell ourselves short... And be willing to recognize that the things we are good at and find easy are often the things that others find difficult and need help with... Charge what you are worth!

How do you use OnlineBizU.com to help with your biz or sanity? Great for resources and knowing what's new in the online world - helps me keep current in this area in a short amount of time.

Personal Info:

School:  MBA from QUT in Brisbane, Australia

Prior jobs or business?  Lots!!!  Very diverse experience which all feeds into where I am now.  Last job was managing a research institute.

Favorite food?  At this moment it's a fresh tomato, basil and baby bocconcini salad, but that could change in a moment.  Chocolate is always good!

What are your pets' names?  Coco - she's a cocker spaniel

Do any of these pets help with your biz?  Yes - gives all my clients lots of unconditional love...

What person or event in your life led you to go into business for yourself? I've always known that I would do this, but the combination of burnout and feeling that I really wanted to be my own boss now got me started.

Website URL (If your biz has a live site you want to link to.)
www.revivecoaching.com.au   and  www.mindsetmiracles.com

Marcia Walker, Step by Step Coaching

Your Name: Marcia Walker

Name of Business: Step by Step Coaching

Type of business: Life and business coach

What does your business do? I work with individuals, couples and groups who want more connection with themselves, with others and with Spirit.  I love to work with couples who are putting together a stepfamily (one or both of them have children already). I do custom-designed workshops and presentations, coach individuals, couples and groups, and teach courses about self-esteem, purposefulness, and communication

Why did you start the biz and when did your business open? After years and years of working with people, I discovered that the particular way that I listen and ask evoking questions, and help
people see themselves and their options in a new light is actually called coaching! I wanted to focus on solutions rather than problems, on creating rather than fixing, so I took the plunge, left my steady job and opened Step by Step Coaching in the spring of 2004

How many people in your company?  Just me!

What's your office location like?  My office is officially a front room in my home, where I can look out of the window as I write or talk on the phone.  The office travels with me when I pick up my phone or my computer and wander to different parts of the house that suit me at the moment A favorite is in the back yard which looks over a field that is home to our neighbor's horses.  Since I often work with clients on the phone, I can work also work anywhere I have a cell signal.  It's part of what I love about my business.

What's the toughest part of running your biz?   The learning curve of using the web, blogging, e-books, etc. is pretty steep for me! Actually, defining and articulating what I do is a challenge for me, so that makes it tough to do much with my website, for example. When someone is in front of me or on the phone, I am in my element.  It flows naturally and effortlessly through me.  But translating that into words and images for a website or brochure can be mind-boggling!

What's the most fun part?  Being present when someone has an "ah-ha!" moment is such a joy for me, but watching how they put it into practice is the best.  I love hearing from people about how they are moving forward, making subtle or even huge changes based on a new freedom or a new perspective.  I've just loved getting to hear a client's demo CD, attend a dance my client choreographed, or see the pictures of a stepfamily couple's new baby.    Ahhh!!  It is exhilarating and fills me with gratitude!

Anything you would have done differently?  There have been several times that I've pulled back from my business to invest more time in family and other big projects. I would find ways to keep
more going and planning the ramping back up better to avoid that sense of starting over again

Explain what's next on the horizon for you and your business?  I want to develop some information products and maybe an online community that can serve more people than I can ever serve in
person

How do you use OnlineBizU.com to help with your biz or sanity?  Wow! There is so much information on this site and so many opportunities.  I am reading something new every few days and
following links to all kinds of amazing services and tools that are out there.  It's like being in school.  This first phase for me is learning what there is to learn.  Next phase will be actually learning it and putting it into action.  This is a gold-mine!

Personal Info:

School

I got my BS in Psychology in 1978 from Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, AL, then headed off to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill for graduate study in Counseling Psychology.   In 2004, I completed the Coach Training Alliance Certified Coach program.

Prior jobs or business?

I have been the director of two domestic violence shelter programs, and on staff at a sexual assault crisis center, all of which required direct services for clients as well as the administrative, PR and fundraising tasks.  After several years in victim services, and a stint as a behavioral health educator for a weight management program, I became the director for the local center of an international personal development program.  I worked in different capacities for that program for seven years, and still teach through the program some five years later. My career hasn't all been about trauma and challenging personal issues, though I found out that I am not cut out to sell long-distance service or nutritional supplements or Avon (which I sold as a teenager and bought as much as I sold!).

Favorite food?  My husband's red velvet cake.

What are your pets' names? I have an empty nest now that the kids have moved out and the pets went with them! I'm always glad to see the cats, Samson and Tiger, but have to admit that I
don't miss Clio the snake

Do any of these pets help with your biz? No, but I do appreciate the company of the horses in the field out back and the llamas I see on my morning walks

What person or event in your life led you to go into business for yourself?

When I developed chronic fatigue, I wanted to work on my own terms and by the time I got well, I was hooked! I also have a close friend who started her coaching business about 5 years before I did .Watching her business grow inspired me --and still does!

Website URL:

http://www.StepbyStepCoaching.biz.  Be sure to click for more information and the client area to see more about me and my coaching practice.
http://www.beingyoubeingus.blogspot.com/ Being You, Being Us Blog

 

Want to be profiled in this blog?  Go here for more details.

Patricia Weber, ProStrategies.com

Your Name:  Patricia Weber

Name of Business:  Professional Strategies Inc

Type of business: Business Coach and Corporate Trainer

What does your business do?  As a coach, I work one to one and in small groups with clients. These are independent professionals, salespeople and small business owners. I can quickly parse things down to the real issue. Then we collaborate to design a plan of action unique to them.

As a trainer I work with my clients to design training and workshops that are practical, participative and so fun that people become inspired to act on the ideas.

Why did you start the biz and when did your business open?  In 1990 I left the corporate world to make my sales manager position a full time training position on my own. Being a manager of 30 some people for me wasn't all it was cracked up to be. The freedom to work with many organizations and have a positive effect on more people was more inspiring. In 2004 the ability to influence people one to one became my focus because I REALLY know as I work closely over a period of time that I've been a positive change catalyst with one human being, or a small group. As a corporate trainer I do not always know that I have made a difference.

How many people are in your company?  I am the company! I have two administrative assistants.

What's your office location like?  I use a guest bedroom as an office. It's in a separate wing of the house away from the hustle and bustle areas. It's painted a Bermuda blue with white trim, desk, credenza, bookcase and file cabinets. My desk has no drawers except for the pen and pencil drawer. The four windows in my room are topped with a window treatment of different hot air balloons. My 20" iMac is my main computer but I have a  Windows laptop I travel with. My vision board is in my line of vision from behind my desk. Our house is a dream home, difficult for me to leave and a perfect cocoon to work in the way it is designed. When I take a work break I usually walk with our miniature poodle to the backyard and sit by the pondless waterfall to recharge myself. Or if she is really feisty, she brings one of her tennis balls over to me to go play toss.

What's the toughest part of running your biz?  Staying focused on my top priority activities. Not because I get distracted with house or yard work; we have people who do that work. Sometimes I just want to stay at or by the waterfall or work out a little longer or just read. I love to read.

What's the most fun part?  What makes it most worthwhile is the flexibility I have to fly to the west coast to visit my son and his family. We have one granddaughter who is two and a half years old and I drop anything to help with her. Or I enjoy heading north to visit my mom and rest of the New York family. Or I'm quite content to be a backup for any emergency that comes up around the home for me and my husband. My life feels more balanced to me this way.

Anything you would have done differently? I would start my business  with a couple or few paying clients before leaving my paying management level position. It took twice as long to start earning than I thought. Also I would start with assistants way sooner.

Explain what's next on the horizon for you and your business? My coach has helped me to see I am sitting on a gold mine about ready to be claimed. By some minor tweaking to what I am already doing, 2008 will be my best year yet. And with this may come a change in name. My company's name is more reflective of my work early in the 1990s and it's changed so much since that start.

What advice do you have for others?  Get a coach. I have a coach at least 6 months of the year and find that THOSE are the times my creativity soars and I take the most well thought out steps forward. I have one for different needs.

How do you use OnlineBizU.com to help with your biz or sanity? When I get the weekly update, I scan the Article summaries and then pick one to read. After that I scan the left hand column for one more topic that might be on my mind. I LOVE how you have the Departments! I just look for one more thing in those Departments, that could help me in an area I might have already been contemplating. I read that and then get back to whatever task was at hand.

Personal Info:

School:  MS Business from Troy State University

Prior jobs or business? Teacher; computer sales; computer sales management

Favorite food? a three way tie between sushi, Thai and Italian

What are your pets' names? Chanel has got to be THE smartest poodle with at least a 50 word vocabulary that she understands. We showed her for a year and she won every award.

Do any of these pets help with your biz? You bet! Chanel lets me know in no uncertain way when I need to take a break.

What person or event in your life led you to go into business for yourself?  My husband is a quite successful entrepreneur. He is quite inspiring to me.

Website URL:
http://www.introvertscansucceedatsales.com
http://www.prostrategies.com